1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to domestic plant husbandry. More specifically, the present invention relates to devices for providing liquid nourishment to houseplants.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In growing plants, providing sufficient fluids on a continuing basis is required. This is typically accomplished by a care-taker directly applying the fluids to the plants manually, at regular time intervals, requiring a fairly consistent presence of the care-taker. Often, such a presence is not possible or inconvenient, such as instances when work or vacation causes prolonged separation of the care-taker and plants. Various methods and apparatuses have been proposed for such instances. U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,150, issued Aug. 16, 1977 to Roos describes a water gravity plant feeder having a housing with a water bottle, a feed tray, a water trough, and a water distributor. Though effective, this rather large apparatus requires that any plants to be watered are moved and/or placed adjacent the housing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,897, issued Apr. 1, 1986 to Pazar et al. describes a plant watering unit in which fluid is provided only when a fluid level drops to expose an outlet orifice to air. U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,626, issued Mar. 24, 1992 to Mordoch describes an automatic watering system for plants that includes a valve controlled by a dryness sensor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,601, issued Jan. 24, 1995 to Astle describes a drip irrigating apparatus that has both inlet and outlet control mechanisms for controlling fluid delivered to a fluid reservoir and from the reservoir directly to the ground. U.S. Design Pat. No. D340,843, issued Nov. 2, 1993 to Morton, Jr. Shows a funnel shaped plant watering device.
Other apparatuses for distributing fluids, other than for watering plants are of course known, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,584, issued Oct. 24, 1978 to Turner, which describes an intravenous fluid control device that performs sequential measuring and dispensing of fluids during specified time intervals. Further, flow control in a conduit has been described, as by U.S. Pat. No. 2,640,675 issued Jun. 2, 1953 to Farris, which shows a manually operated pinch valve that includes a flexible conduit, and a clamping member and a frame member, where the conduit may be constricted by adjusting the distance between the clamping member and the frame member.